Startup Tip: Working With Lawyers (Part 1 of 4) (Communication, Information and Over-Lawyering)

Last week, a post on Venture Hacks briefly discussed the 10 reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers. I felt that post, while good, missed an opportunity to offer practical advice on what entrepreneurs and small business owners should do when working with lawyers.

Over the next four days, I’ll talk about how you can better work with your legal counsel and will suggest some strategies to help you find a good lawyer. I’ll use the Venture Hacks post as a guide. Every day, working backwards from reason 10, I’ll discuss three of the reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers (I’ll save the top reason for the last day).

By way of background for those who don’t know me: prior to crowdSPRING, I practiced law for 13 years. During that time, I counseled and represented clients (from internet startups to Fortune 100 companies) in transactional matters and in complex trials. I’ve set at the table as a lawyer, and now have the perspective of an entrepreneur. Here we go:

Comments

Thanks for your comment, Ed. I agree, and I’d take it a step further — particularly in the context of those who choose to leave the law. Seems to me that all lawyers, even those who have never practiced, have something of value simply by virtue of their legal training. Those who have practiced, of course, have additional value thanks to their work, the connections they’ve made with clients and other lawyers, and so on.